A Look Back At The Shutdown, In Photos

A National Park Service employee posts a sign on a barricade in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1, the first day of the U.S. government shutdown.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 58 points, as the shutdown continued into its second day.

Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Children from a Head Start program in Washington, D.C., join supporters and members of Congress on Oct. 2 to call for an end to the shutdown and to fund the comprehensive education, health and nutrition service for low-income children and their families.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks out of the White House to speak to members of the media after meeting with President Obama on Oct. 2.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., speaks during a protest held by furloughed federal workers outside the Capitol on Oct. 4. The workers demanded an end to the lockout of federal employees caused by the government shutdown.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Veterans visit the World War II Memorial on Oct. 5. Several veterans' groups continued to make their pilgrimages to the war memorials despite the shutdown.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer holds a check for $426,500, presented to her by the town of Tusayan, Ariz., as partial payment to open Grand Canyon National Park. The National Park Service announced that it entered into an agreement with the state of Arizona that would allow the park to re-open and temporarily operate during the shutdown.

Michael Quin/National Park Service/AP

Jackson Blendowski, 6, peers up at the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on Oct. 13. The Statue of Liberty reopened to the public after the state of New York agreed to shoulder the costs of running the site during the shutdown.

John Minchillo/AP

President Obama talks with children and adult volunteers at Martha's Table in Washington, D.C., on Monday. The nonprofit organization helps low-income and homeless families. Many of the volunteers over the past couple weeks were furloughed federal workers.

Members of the House of Representatives depart after a late-night vote Wednesday on legislation to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown. President Obama signed the bill just after midnight.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters /Landov

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The budget fight that led to a partial federal government shutdown finally came to an end late Wednesday.

For 16 days, beginning at midnight on Oct. 1, hundreds of thousands of federal employees were told not to come to work. Museums, monuments, libraries and parks were closed across the country.

There were protests and anger from some furloughed workers, while others spent their time off volunteering for the needy. Some states sought to fill the void left by the shutdown by using their own funds to keep national parks and monuments like the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the Statue of Liberty in New York open and ready for tourists.